In the cold, forested North-lands-redolent with the aroma of pine, shrouded in snow, and prowled by ice tigers and trolls-Ivvar seeks only to meet his newborn great granddaughter.
Someone else has the same plan.
Traversing the wilderness toward the infant's home camp, Ivvar must face the woman he once cherished and an ancient scourge of the chilly woodlands in a complicated dance of love and death.
Ivvar's second chance at happiness-and his life-hang in the balance.
KAUNIS CLAN SAGA
The Hammarleeding people dwell in the high mountain valleys of J.M. Ney-Grimm's North-lands. They wield a tribal magic born of dance and song and the flow of sacred waters.
Ritual and tradition hold a special place in Hammarleeding culture. Their rites are beautiful and uplifting, but they underpin a way of life that features many thou-shalt-nots.
In each story of the Kaunis Clan Saga, one woman-or one man-challenges the shibboleths that threaten her-or his-particular bright dream.
Sarvet's Wanderyar (1)
Crossing the Naiad (2)
Livli's Gift (3)
Winter Glory (4)
Each installment presents a unique protagonist from a fresh generation of the family. The stories stand alone and need not be read in order.
PRAISE FOR WINTER GLORY
"A little atmospheric gem of a novella... interesting, beautifully written, and worth re-reading." -RS
"In the starkly beautiful North-lands-a place that Ney-Grimm conveys so clearly it's like watching a movie on the inside of your skull-two people who once knew and loved each other meet up again. This is their story..." -L. Montgomery
"The descriptive language is nothing short of gorgeous... I love that the protagonists are older... and they stuck with me long after I had finished reading." -MA
"The writing is lucid, elegant, smooth. Ney-Grimm creates a fantasy world of Norse legends, but with real people..." -Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt
"...in the midst of this excellent adventure story comes an insight so brilliant..." -Pat Patterson
EXCERPT FROM WINTER GLORY
His gaze stopped on a woman sitting alone in the booth at the far left corner.
She wore Hammarleeding garb-wool tunic and leggings like his-hers drab in subdued ecru decorated by patterns of gray and white. She was bony, rangy, likely quite tall . . . and she held herself like a queen, straight and graceful as she sipped her cup of tea.
She wasn't beautiful, but she drew him. Lightly tanned skin like his own; straight nose, a little on the long side; flat cheeks. Laugh lines framed her firm mouth. She looked genuine and . . . appealing.
The flutter in his innards grew.
Then lagging memory brought another face before his mind's eye.
Like to the one across the room from him in the here-and-now. So like. But younger; fifty or more years younger.
His former wife. Paiam.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J.M. Ney-Grimm lives with her husband and children in Virginia, just east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. She's learning about permaculture gardening and debunking popular myths about food. The rest of the time she reads Robin McKinley, Diana Wynne Jones, and Lois McMaster Bujold, plays boardgames like Settlers of Catan, rears her twins, and writes stories set in her troll-infested North-lands. Look for her novels and novellas at your favorite bookstore-online or on Main Street.
